The US Navy is retraining its mine-hunting dolphins to help save an elusive, endangered species

Everything is fair in war, even deploying dolphins. Since the 1960s, the US Navy has run a marine-mammal program that trains dolphins and sea lions to achieve feats that even the best machines can’t: sniffing out mines, navigating when lost in the open sea, and acting as security guards for strategic assets.

For their newest mission, these genius dolphins are likely to feel a little more at home. An international committee of experts set up to save the elusive and critically endangered vaquita porpoise,which lives in the Gulf of California, has partnered with the US Navy’s dolphin program. Continue reading.